Happy Monday, Bombers and Bombshells!
Today, we wanted to introduce you to a bomb brand you should know: Queendom by Romance.
The lingerie line has gorgeous pieces for the sassy Bombshell looking to add boldly hued, cheeky pieces to their boudoir wardrobe.
We sat down with the owner of Queendom by Romance, Romance Anastasa, to discuss how and why she started her lingerie line.
Romance says, “I’m from Chicago, and went to school in San Diego. As I was working my way through school, I worked at Macy’s. My real name is Romance, and they loved that, [so my supervisors thought it would be appropriate to put me in the lingerie department]. I was a lingerie specialist there for about 2 years, and I loved it. That’s all I always thought about. Even though I’m a nurse by trade, I just always thought about lingerie. I was drawing it, I was buying pieces, my own lingerie closet has always been huge. That’s just how I got started.”
She continues, “I worked my way up in nursing, and eventually got into healthcare sales. At 27, I was the VP of sales and marketing for a healthcare company. I was very fortunate to have this amazing boss who pushed me to follow my dreams. With his permission and with his resources, I was able to open my first store in 2015.”
She says, “I put my focus on normal girls. I feel like being an African-American woman, one of the things we champion is that we are beautiful too. The [traditional] standard of beauty is nowadays not the only standard of beauty in the world. But [now it’s trendy] to have full glam, you have to have a BBL [or a nice shape], so I always try to focus on normal girls. All my social media, all my website, my customers, I wanted them to feel proud to be within their normal selves. [I call them] Little Aaliyah’s because Aaliyah was the epitome of a normal girl. I wanted to shift the focus a little bit. So not only black women, all women, any woman [of] any shape [or] size… could know that they’re beautiful. “
Her advice to young entrepreneurs looking to break into lingerie? “Don’t stop, never give up. If you’re passionate about it, and if you love it and are having fun with it, never ever ever give up. I honestly hate to say the word fail because it has such a negative connotation, but I’ve honestly failed so many different times.”
She explains, “At one point I had 2 stores and I had to close them. Then Covid came, I had these 3 stores, and I had to close . It hit [me] and a lot of other businesses in the most terrible way. But I’m passionate about [lingerie], and I want women to feel that they’re beautiful. I [also] want other women who look like me, from the South Side of Chicago, to know that they can do this. So you just have to keep going. You’re not gonna make money every single day, every single month even. But if you’re passionate about it, and you’re motivated, and you’re resilient, and you believe in yourself, GOD will open the door for you.”
She continues, “Social Media has painted this picture of, ‘you just gotta hustle,’ and’ you gotta get up everyday, ‘ That’s not all you have to do. It’s really hard and even with that hustle, and even with that back breaking work, you might still fail. You just have to be able to be resilient, get up again tomorrow, and keep going.”
In closing, she says, “I want the audience to know that I did fail a lot of times. I’m not this [overnight] success story. I was a VP of Business Development. I made 6 figures starting at 27. I walked away and I still make 6 figures, but it’s my brand. And it’s because I didn’t give up.”
That’s powerful! We love a good success story, and the lingerie is beautiful to boot!
Shop unique, quality lingerie, in sizes XS-4X at QueenbyRomance.com. Be sure to follow them @QueendombyRomance and follow Romance @romanceanastasa.
What say you?
Images: Courtesy of Queendom by Romance